Desolation Row
by mmaynsh
Summary: "Tyler clenched his fist tightly. He could feel his fingernails digging into his palm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Thing inspecting someone in the line of people they had been herded into. The young man being inspected was visibly shaking. " in which Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun get stuck in DEMA prison.


p class="p1"Tyler clenched his fist tightly. He could feel his fingernails digging into his palm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Thing inspecting someone in the line of people they had been herded into. The young man being inspected was visibly shaking. Quickly, without hesitation, the Thing pulled a small pistol out of it's coat and shot the boy in the head. He was dead before he could make a sound. He watched as the man slowly fell to the ground, eyes dull and lifeless. A chill went through the small of his neck, all the way down to the soles of his class="Apple-converted-space" /spanHe found himself wishing Josh was here. Who knows what his friend was going through right now? They had been separated the second they arrived. Where even was here? They had been riding in a car, he remembers. It was a long empty road, surrounded by a snow covered forest. They had been on their way to Tyler's parents' house. They had decided to start spending more time with their families. Then, the driver had locked the doors and put a barrier between himself and the backseat. Tyler had tried breaking the window, but had just ended up with a busted hand and a bloody class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p  
p class="p1"Tyler was forced back to reality when the Thing stopped in front of class="Apple-converted-space" /spanHe felt his blood run cold. It peered at him from behind it's mask. In the back of his mind, he wondered what their faces looked like. Staring defiantly back, he realized it was inching its hand to it's gun. His heart filled with dread. This was it. He was going to die here. For whatever reason, this thing had decided he was one of the poor few who were to be killed. He would never see his family, or Jenna, or Josh again. He'd never sing again. Never play the piano again. His life was going to end in some run down prison in the middle of nowhere. Would they even move his body? Maybe they'd leave him here. The boy from earlier was still lying there, blood pooling around the back of his head in the class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p  
p class="p1"Then, he heard a loud, fake cough. The Thing turned it's head, Tyler forgotten. It slowly walked over to the person who had interrupted it. Glancing over, Tyler saw that it was a young woman, probably in her early 20s. She glared at the Thing as it stood in front of her. Before Tyler could process what was happening, the girl was on the ground, wincing and holding her stomach. For a second, he was worried that she had been shot, but he saw no blood and heard no gunshot. The Thing started whaling on the young girl, kicking her mercilessly. Guilt poured through Tyler quickly. She had tried distracting the Thing from him, and this was what she got for it. Eventually, it stopped kicking her. It looked at everyone in line. Swiftly, it turned and class="Apple-converted-space" /spanMore Things appeared behind the line and began herding everyone into a large building. As he was being shoved around, he looked back and realized the girl was still lying in the snow. None of the Things had helped her up. They were going to let her die out here. She was too injured to get up on her own. He tried moving back over to her, but a Thing pulled him back, gripping his arm tightly. He tried shrugging it off angrily, but it didn't budge. Then he heard footsteps behind him, and he turned around. He widened his eyes as the girl slowly limped over to the group. Once she reached everyone, the Thing let go of Tyler, rejoining the other Things in bringing everyone into the class="Apple-converted-space" /span"Are you.. alright?" Tyler asked the girl hesitantly. She glanced at him and brought her finger to her lips, silencing him. Confusedly, he followed her into the dark gray building, wondering if that was the last time he would see the class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p  
p class="p2" /p  
p class="p1"Josh sat in the small dark room, willing himself to disappear. After they had been forced out of the car, Tyler and Josh had instantly been separated. Josh had been led into a large gray building, while Tyler had been led to a small line of people standing outside. He had been forced into the small room, which contained a few blankets, a sink, and a toilet. The Things that brought him there had thrown in a pair of clothes in a few minutes after he had been locked in. He really didn't want to wear the clothes, as they were covered in dust and had multiple stains that looked suspiciously like blood. Unfortunately, he didn't have much of a choice, as his current clothes consisted of a pair of jeans and a white tank top. A stupid choice, considering it was snowing, but he had been hot in the car with the air conditioning, so he had taken his jacket off. His thoughts were interrupted when a Thing opened his cell door, pointing a gun at him while gesturing for him to get out. Slowly, Josh stood and cautiously walked out into the hall. That was when he realized he wasn't the only person in the building. Around 20 people were being taken out of cells similar to his. As he was looking around, the Thing pushed it's gun into his back and pointed forwards, where the other people were walking toward a door at the end of the hall. Trying his best to keep calm, he started for the door. Whatever was going on, he hoped he would see Tyler sometime soon./p  
p class="p1"After being led through multiple large empty rooms and hallways, his group reached a large room with tables scattered throughout it. There were plates of food at every seat, and everyone began sitting at their respective tables. Turning around, he realized the Things had left them all here alone. Could he escape? He didn't think they were stupid enough to just leave them here, but did he have a choice? He couldn't stay here. Wherever he was, it wasn't a normal prison. He hadn't even committed a crime! He also had to find Tyler. As he reached for the door handle, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Spinning around, he was face to face with a scrawny looking man who was staring intently at him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." the man said calmly as his hand slid off Josh's shoulder. "Why not?" he replied cautiously. He'd been doing a lot of things cautiously lately. "They shoot down anyone who walks out those doors without permission. We're not idiots. We wouldn't be sitting here on our asses if we could just walk out the door." was the reply. Josh felt himself suck in a deep breath as he processed this information. He had no reason to trust this man, but the risk was too high to not believe class="Apple-converted-space" /span/p  
p class="p1""Come with me." he added when Josh hadn't responded. He dutifully followed as he was led to a table on the other side of the room. Josh's mind was reeling. Those Things had killed people. A part of him had already known this, deep inside him. The blood on his uniform, the guns they carried around. It should have been obvious. He had refused to admit it until now. His insides churned as he sat down, staring at the food on the table with disgust. It was a mushy brown apple, a cup of water, and a bowl of frozen rice. "You need to eat. It's the only food or drink you'll get for the day." Josh turned his head to see a tall man smiling kindly down at him from his seat at the table. The man looked exactly like someone you'd find inside a prison, covered in tattoos, a deep, rough voice, and large muscles. Although this man seemed to be the exact opposite of how he looked. He was still smiling at Josh, and while he would usually be a bumbling pile of nerves, Josh felt oddly comforted. "Oi, you gonna listen to him or what? Eat up, twink. Angus here is try'na help ya." Although he frowned at being called a 'twink', he opened his mouth to apologize. Before he could say anything though, Angus spoke up. "Please Jeoff. He's new here. Remember when we first got here? We were even more scared than he was!" the large man chuckled. Jeoff grumbled something and then went back to eating, seemingly forgetting about Josh. "They're right. You should eat. The others will be here soon, and someone will most likely try and steal your food." the man from earlier said to him. "I'm Clancy, by the way. And you are?" he asked. "I'm Josh. And what do you mean by 'others'? Theres more people here?" He asked desperately. Any information about this place was important./p  
p class="p1"span class="Apple-converted-space" /span"There are a few hundred people here - not including the Watchers - but we're all divided into cell blocks. This is block nine. There are nine cell blocks in total, and about 30 people in nine, and if that's true with the rest of the blocks, that's about 270 in total. There are around 20 people in here now, and the other Niners are outside in-line." Clancy explained. That was a lot to comprehend at once. Then he realized. Clancy had said something about the other Niners being in-line outside. That's where Tyler had gone. "Wait why are the other Niners outside in-line? My friend I came with, he was taken to that line. What are they doing out there? Is he alright?" Josh asked quickly. Clancy looked down, and Angus averted his eyes. Even Jeoff grunted uncomfortably. Josh could feel his heart drop to his feet. "Every once in a while the Watchers take a few people outside. We think they're taking out who they think are planning on escaping. A lot of people don't come back from it." he said softly. Josh thought back on their car ride here. The entire time, Tyler had been planning their escape, while Josh just sat there, listening. He wondered how things would have gone if he had helped Tyler. Instead, he had sat there, terrified out of his mind. Now Tyler was paying the price for it./p 


End file.
